Shane Penfield recently moved back to Perkins County, in South Dakota’s far northwest. And while both he and his wife were born in the West River ranching country, the location of the county — which has more square miles than people — made them pause and ask a few tough questions.
“My wife and I, that was one of our big concerns: If you have a Mac Attack, where do you go?” he said.
He means the Big Mac, the iconic sandwich cranked out by the millions by the McDonald’s fast food chain. While it might seem like McDonalds are everywhere, Perkins County is home to the McFarthest Spot —142 road miles away from a McDonald’s restaurant.
The McFarthest Spot map
The map, and the dubious distinction awarded to Perkins County, is courtesy of blogger Stephen Von Worley, who decided to map out all of McDonald’s more than 13,000 locations in the continental United States.
“To gauge the creep of cookie-cutter commercialism, there’s no better barometer than McDonald’s — ubiquitous fast food chain and inaugural megacorporate colonizer of small towns nationwide,” he wrote in a Sept. 22 post on his blog, www.weathersealed.com.
The map quickly went viral, pinballing its way around the Internet.
Von Worley, who didn’t respond to an interview request by The Post, didn’t build the map to help McDonald’s restaurant, but to find areas where one could get away from McDonald’s Angus burgers and McCafe drinks.
While some desert and mountain locales came close, he found that spot in Perkins County, tucked between the townships of Meadow and Glad Valley, east of county seat Bison.
Sorry Perkins County. Love, McDonald’s
McDonald’s sees the gap in their map, as well. But the corporation has no plans to fill it in.
“At this time, this particular area doesn’t meet the criteria needed in order for us to build a McDonald’s
restaurant,” said Tim Vogel, Midwest region real estate manager for McDonald’s, in a written statement. “While there are no immediate development plans for this particular area, we continue to evaluate nearby locations for future opportunities.”
That criteria includes factors such as residential population, retail environment, traffic patterns and area visibility, Vogel added.
That’s not all bad news for Holly Waddell and her husband Lynn, who run a small ranch a few miles northeast of Bison, very close to the McFarthest Spot.
Waddell, who admits to hitting up McDonald’s now and then for coffee and lighter fare, said she doesn’t eat burgers from the fast-food chain – she’s got her own beef. And her own table.
“When you have the family dining table, McDonald’s doesn’t lend itself to that atmosphere, of people sitting around the table and sharing what they’re doing,” she said.
McDonald’s also doesn’t pay very well, she said, and, in her opinion, a Perkins County McDonald’s wouldn’t do much to boost the standard of living in the county.
Still, McDonald’s does seek to buy as much beef as possible from producers in the U.S., said. Waddell. The issue is close to her heart both as a rancher and as the 2010 board chair of Dakota Rural Action, a group that seeks to protect family farmers and ranchers.
“I really do feel that McDonald’s has been one of the fast food chains that has made a conscious effort to include the most domestic product in their beef line,” she said.
Local options still king
McDonald’s a good treat during a trip to the big city, says Penfield, the county’s state’s attorney, who also sells real estate and runs his own law firm.
He and his family live in the bustling 1,200-person town of Lemmon, in northern Perkins County. That means he’s only a 100 mile drive to Dickinson, N.D. or Mobridge, S.D, home of the nearest stop light, Wal-Mart, and of course, McDonalds.
“Honestly, we’ve survived,” Penfield says. “We’ve got two little boys. They probably don’t get the Happy Meal consumption, but that’s alright.”
That doesn’t mean the good folks of Perkins County have nowhere to eat. Both Penfield and Waddell can reel off the dining options, including steak, Chinese and pizza.
“You know who owns the restaurants, “Waddell said. “You try to go to the hometown folks to keep the money circulating in the community.”
Penfield, a member of his town’s economic development effort, is quick to point out Perkins County is worth a visit or a lifetime, regardless of its distance to a Big Mac.
Perhaps that could even be a sales pitch.
“People need to explore the great northwest of South Dakota, we have a lot to offer,” Penfield said. “Part of it is the wide open spaces . . . and that you won’t see the Golden Arches.”
But what if McDonald’s was eying Perkins County? Where should they go?
“Tell them Lemmon is the big town,” Penfield said.
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